text:
| |||||||||||
HD Talk
Unbiased Coverage Of All Things HD: HD-DVD, Blu-Ray and Beyond
Blu in the Face - Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray Player Review
If you follow home theater at all, you've probably already heard plenty about the High Definition format war. Two competing HD optical disc formats are battling for position as the next-generation successor to DVD. We've got HD DVD fronted by Toshiba on one side and Blu-ray fronted by Sony, Samsung, and a handful of partners on the other. Both offer true High Definition video content on an optical disc similar to DVD in its convenience and usage, and truth be told the two formats are more similar than not. HD DVD debuted earlier this year and has delivered stunningly high quality video and audio from its small but growing catalog of titles. This has certainly been a boon to movie fans clamoring for more High-Def content to play on their HDTVs, but the format has faced the looming threat of Blu-ray. Backed by a larger selection of big name electronics corporations and movie studios, Blu-ray has been boasting for months about its allegedly better technical specs that come at a much higher list price. When I reviewed the Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD Player back in April, I wrote of the two formats: "I personally expect that both will offer near-identical picture and sound quality, but if Blu-Ray players and software prove to be worthy of their premium prices you'll read about it right here." So here we are a few months later and Blu-ray has finally launched with its very first player, the Samsung BD-P1000. The unit retails for $999.98, exactly twice as much as the comparable HD DVD player. Was it worth the wait, and more importantly the expense? Sadly, and it really pains me as a High Definition fan to say this, but what we've got is a case of twice the price for less quality. If this first player and the initial wave of discs are any indication, Blu-ray has not only failed to surpass its less-expensive rival, it has quite a bit of catching up to do. In order to justify the higher retail prices, Blu-ray backers have argued several technical advantages in their favor. Chief among these is the format's greater storage capacity of 25 gb per disc layer, which should in theory allow it to store HD video with less compression and hence better quality. They've also criticized the initial Toshiba HD DVD players for being limited to only 1080i HD resolution output while the Blu-ray players brag of their output up to 1080p. The Samsung player comes packaged with a cardboard counter display (we're supposed to set this up in our homes?) that advertises its "Full HD 1080p" output. It then claims this is "better than five times the resolution of standard DVD" - a grandiose way of saying that it's exactly six times DVD resolution (as is HD DVD for that matter). Regarding these technical specifications, although Blu-ray indeed claims theoretically better storage capacity, the reality of that assertion is mitigated by several hugely important factors. First of all, due to their complicated manufacturing needs, the production yield rates for single-layer 25 gb Blu-ray discs have been rather poor, and dual-layer 50 gb discs apparently have such a high failure rate that so far no titles have been released in that configuration. On the other hand, while HD DVD only offers 15 gb capacity per disc layer, the majority of that format's releases have been on dual-layer 30 gb discs. What this means is that, up to this point, HD DVD has in fact offered higher storage capacity. That said, if Blu-ray can get their act together and successfully manufacture 50 gb discs they will regain the edge in the storage race (based purely on raw capacity). Until that happens, you'll have to forgive me for remaining skeptical. Even more importantly than just the capacity itself, however, is the issue of how data is stored within that space. HD DVDs have been using Microsoft's VC-1 codec, an advanced compression format capable of squeezing huge amounts of high-resolution video into a limited storage space without visible artifacts. VC-1 doesn't need 50 gb for movie storage; it's proven that even longer movies can fit perfectly well within 30 gb and maintain excellent quality while still including numerous bonus features on the same disc. The Blu-ray discs released so far have (at Sony's insistence) been using the older and less efficient MPEG2 codec (the same format used on regular DVDs), which requires a lot more space to deliver comparable results. On top of this, many Blu-rays encode their movie soundtracks in uncompressed PCM format that eats up enormous amounts of space, leaving even fewer available bits for the video. The first Blu-ray releases have been mostly shorter movies and have dropped many of the bonus features from their comparable DVD editions to save space. Blu-ray can use VC-1 (or the also-efficient MPEG4), and perhaps will in the future, but I can only judge what has actually been released, and the results so far are decidedly inferior to what HD DVD offers. I made some effort to debunk the 1080i vs. 1080p argument in my HD DVD player review. In short, both 1080i and 1080p utilize the exact same number of pixels: 1920x1080. The only difference between them is that one is delivered in separate interlaced fields while the other is delivered in whole video frames. When a 1080i output signal is transmitted to a 1080p-capable display, that signal will be deinterlaced and will appear on screen in no less than 1080p format. Both HD DVD and Blu-ray natively store their movie content as 1080p video frames, so the act of reassembling the interlaced fields is much easier than if the data had been originally captured and stored in only interlaced format. As proof of this concept, look no further than the Samsung Blu-ray player itself. Although Blu-ray disc data is stored in 1080p format, the Samsung's Broadcom decoder chip (incidentally, the same chip used in Toshiba's HD DVD players!) is limited to output at a maximum of 1080i. In order to live up to their "True HD 1080p" advertising claims, Samsung has added a Faroudja deinterlacing chip downstream of the decoder. So the data on a Blu-ray disc goes from 1080p to 1080i back to 1080p before it leaves the player. Contrast this to an HD DVD signal chain, where the only difference is that the 1080i interlaced fields get reassembled in the display rather than the player. And of course let's not forget that both formats are currently on their first-generation hardware. 1080p output from future players of both formats is almost a foregone conclusion. Let's get right into specifics about the first Blu-ray player now. The BD-P1000 has a shiny black finish that's aesthetically rather pleasing. It's a little smaller and lighter than the Toshiba HD DVD models, and looks more like a regular DVD player than a computer-in-a-box. If a video format could be judged purely on the outward appearance of its hardware, Blu-ray would have an edge. However, it looks a little bit too much like a DVD player, or more specifically like a cheap Samsung DVD player, not like leading-edge new technology worthy of a $999 list price. The HD DVD players at least are big and heavy, and feel like they're giving you something for your money. There is one serious cosmetic problem with the Samsung model, also. When powered on, the Blu-ray logo and two of the front panel buttons light up with a shiny blue glow. It's meant to look sleek and impressive, but can be terribly distracting in a darkened home theater room, especially if the player is positioned below your screen. Although there is a command in the Setup menus to dim the LED display, the blue lights cannot be adjusted or turned off. In any case, this is a superficial complaint at most. It has nothing to do with the player's actual performance. When the second-generation models are ready, both formats will be more streamlined. HD DVD players have been criticized for their slow boot-up and disc loading times. The Samsung Blu-ray player clocks in a little bit faster. It's slow by regular DVD standards, but not slow enough that it will be too distracting. Perhaps more surprising is the player's responsiveness. When turning on functions or transitioning between menu pages, the unit will often display a Windows-style hourglass to let you know that it's processing. Again, it's not so slow that it ever becomes a nuisance, but is a little bit comical. The player behaves more like a computer or video game console than a movie playback deck. I complained previously about the Toshiba HD DVD remote control, yet Samsung's is unfortunately no better. Though it fits in the hand a little more comfortably, the button layout is an absolute mess. Key functions are not positioned where you would think to press for them. The "Play" and "Pause" functions, for instance, are consolidated into a single button. The "Menu" button above the directional arrows doesn't access the disc menus like you'd expect; it's for the player's Setup menu. For disc menus there's not one but two tiny buttons hidden at the bottom. This is a terrible remote. On the subject of disc menus, Blu-ray uses a Java-based interface that allows you to pull up the menus while a movie is still playing. It's pretty much exactly the same as HD DVD's iHD menu option, actually. On the BD-P1000, you have to hit the "Popup Menu" button to get this to work; the regular "Disc Menu" button takes you out of the movie. Unlike iHD, the Popup function will not work when a movie is paused. Blu-ray supporters claim that the Java menus will offer a number of other interactive features, and a little booklet that comes with each disc promotes something called Blu-Wizard that will "customize the way you watch special features to provide a unique viewing experience". The booklet instructs you to select "Blu-Wizard" on the disc's main menu, but there was no such option anywhere on the currently available discs that I could find. The only thing close was a tutorial on the Lionsgate discs for how to navigate their menus (they're really not that complicated). I guess Blu-Wizard just isn't ready yet. Also not ready is the internet connection that Blu-ray promoters have been hyping will revolutionize the movie-watching experience by letting you search online for products that you see in the movie (as if that's something anyone has been dying to do). The BD-P1000 has no ethernet cable port, so that's a definite no-go on this model. What we have instead are two flash memory card slots for slide shows from a digital camera. I had neither the ability nor interest to test this out, so I'll just take Samsung at their word that it works. The BD-P1000 has your standard bevy of connection options, exactly the same ones that HD DVD offers. There are useless Composite and S-video outputs, but of course neither can actually transmit High Definition video so there's no cause to ever plug them into anything. High-Def is output by either Component Video or HDMI. Just like HD DVD, the analog Component Video connection is technically capable of outputting full High Definition video, but the player will enforce a resolution-crippling Image Constraint Token if the software manufacturer encodes a disc with one. Thus far, no studios have yet followed through on the threat of that, fortunately. The HDMI output is compliant with HDCP copy protection and must be connected to another HDCP-enabled device to function. The HDCP handshake process is a bit jittery, and on my display the picture awkwardly starts up, blacks out for a few seconds, and then restarts any time you stop or start a disc. This also happens, quite annoyingly, when you navigate from the High Definition menu pages on a Blu-ray disc into any bonus features encoded in Standard Definition. For audio we're given Toslink and digital coaxial S/PDIF outputs, as well as separate 2-channel and 5.1 analog connections. The HDMI connection is also capable of transmitting audio along with video. I'll go into more detail on these audio options below. The Samsung BD-P1000 is backwards compatible with regular DVD (as well as CD, which some Blu-ray players will not be). It can upconvert 480i DVD video to 480p, 720p, or 1080i resolutions. It tested this out a little bit, but my philosophy is that if I want to watch a DVD I'll watch it in a quality DVD player. A Blu-ray player is best served watching Blu-ray discs. However, I realize that some potential buyers will find this more important than I do. The unit is compatible with Region 1 NTSC DVDs. It is not a region-free deck and cannot play PAL discs regardless of region coding. The player will not pillarbox or zoom 4:3 or non-anamorphic letterbox content, so you won't want to watch discs of those types at an upscaled resolution unless you enjoy watching the picture stretched to 16:9. This is also problematic on the Blu-ray discs themselves, which have so far recycled DVD bonus features in 4:3 Standard Definition video without pillarboxing; on most HDTV displays these will come out looking stretched. The BD-P1000 uses a Faroudja DCDi deinterlacing chip that passed most of the important tests on the HQV Benchmark DVD. In this regard, it outperformed the Toshiba HD-A1, which has some difficulty with video-based content. In my testing, both performed about the same when it came to deinterlacing film-based movies. The Samsung's scaling process didn't introduce any distracting artifacts that I noticed, but the resulting picture was not as sharp or detailed as the HD-A1's (many owners have raved about the Toshiba's upscaling abilities). For lack of testing this all that extensively, my preliminary judgement is that the BD-P1000 is a reasonably decent though not exceptional upscaling DVD player. If this were your main criteria for buying it, the unit is certainly not worth $999 for that alone. Better upscaling DVD players can be purchased for significantly less. Let's get right to it: how do Blu-ray discs look? To be blunt, the first couple of discs I watched looked like crap. No, I'm not kidding or exaggerating for effect; they look pretty bad. Among the titles that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment elected to launch the format with are The Fifth Element and House of Flying Daggers, two beautifully photographed movies that ought to make excellent showcases for High Definition video. Fifth Element in particular is often cited as a demonstration quality disc on standard DVD, so you'd expect it to pull the same duty here. Sadly, not so much. I'll go into more specifics in my individual reviews of the discs themselves, but for some reason Fifth Element was mastered from dirty, scratched-up film elements in much worse condition than their older Superbit DVD edition. Both titles, especially Flying Daggers are excessively filtered and compressed. Neither looks anywhere near as good as an average HD DVD release. The decision to encode the movies with MPEG2 compression on single-layer 25 gb discs also cluttered by space-hogging PCM audio has obviously resulted in a serious sacrifice of picture quality. Needless to say, this is a very bad start for the Blu-ray format. The next two discs I watched were The Terminator (from MGM) and Terminator 2 (from Lionsgate). Both were better than the Sony titles (especially T2, which isn't burdened with PCM audio), but they both still exhibit obvious digital compression flaws. The first Terminator I had trouble telling apart from its regular DVD edition, and even T2 looks at best like a mediocre HD DVD. Nothing I've seen so far has risen to the level of the better-class HD DVDs such as The Last Samurai, The Phantom of the Opera, or The Bourne Supremacy, all of which demonstrate nearly artifact-free video with amazing levels of detail and vibrancy. Blu-ray has certainly not put is best foot forward with these first releases. Given that there is currently only one Blu-ray player available, it's hard to pinpoint exactly how much of the disappointing video quality is the result of poor disc mastering and how much is actually the fault of poor decoding by the player, but it's worth noting that the BD-P1000 uses the same Broadcom decoder chip that has produced such excellent results in Toshiba's HD DVD players. Perhaps Blu-ray is more complicated to process or Samsung has not configured the chip correctly (the company isn't exactly known for making high quality DVD players), but if I had to speculate I'd be inclined to place most of the blame on the discs themselves. The technical limitations of these first discs are well known, and many of the problems seen are familiar MPEG2 artifacts the likes of which are found on many poorly-mastered DVDs. More debatable is an issue seen in all of the initial Lionsgate titles that have opted to include regular DTS audio instead of PCM. When you choose the DTS soundtrack, the video becomes noticeably jerky, a problem that goes away if you choose Dolby Digital instead. Until we get a larger representative sample of players from other manufacturers, I can't say whether that's a flaw in the Samsung BD-P1000 or the disc, but there's a good chance it's the player. I tested the BD-P1000 over both HDMI and Component Video. In order to switch between these, you have to push a button on the player's front panel; there's no option to change output by the remote. I've read some user comments that claimed Component Video was superior to HDMI on this player, but I don't share that experience. In my testing, HDMI was visibly sharper and provided more saturated colors at both 720p and 1080i resolutions. Even after careful independent calibration of each output, the difference was far from subtle. I'm not able to test 1080p output at this time, so I suppose it's possible that there's an error in the 1080p processing that further degrades the HDMI video, but I can't confirm that. From what I've seen so far, HDMI is definitely the better option. The player will output High Definition video at your choice of 720p, 1080i, or 1080p resolutions. 1080p is only available over HDMI, and is only enabled if the startup handshake between your components confirms 1080p compatibility in the display; otherwise that selection is grayed out in the setup menus. As I mentioned earlier, 1080p from this player is produced by decoding the original 1080p disc data to 1080i and then deinterlacing it later to reassemble the 1080p frames. It's a roundabout process to get right back where they should have started, but at least in theory it should be relatively easy to perform losslessly. How well Samsung's implementation follows through on this promise I can't yet validate, unfortunately. Under normal circumstances I'd advise setting the player's output to match the native resolution of your HDTV display, but when I directly compared several Blu-ray movie scenes at both 720p and 1080i output on a native 720p projector, the 720p option was noticeably softer in fine object details. The scaling process to 720p seems to be flawed. The Toshiba HD DVD players have a similar issue (theirs involves jagged scaling artifacts rather than softening). For both formats, I recommend 1080i output from the player regardless of your HDTV display type. Here's where things get really messy. The HD video revolution has brought with it the potential for several new high-resolution audio formats including high bit-rate Dolby Digital Plus or lossless Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. HD DVD has embraced DD+ as its mandatory base-level standard, while offering limited support for TrueHD (only 2-channel decoding) and DTS-HD (downconverted to standard DTS) in the current hardware. It's a good start, with obvious room for improvement in the second-generation players. [Update: On August 25th, 2006 Toshiba issued a firmware update (version 2.0) for their HD DVD players that upgrades their audio sections to Dolby TrueHD 5.1 capability.] Blu-ray meanwhile allows all of these same audio formats as optional additions, but does not require any of them in the hardware or software. Regular Dolby Digital and DTS are the only mandatory audio standards. Unfortunately, all of the first-generation players, including this Samsung BD-P1000 and the upcoming models from Sony, Pioneer, and Panasonic, do not support any of these new audio formats at all. The players have no decoding circuitry, and no ability to transmit the bitstreams to external A/V receivers for processing either (for that you'll need an HDMI 1.3 connection, but only HDMI 1.1 is currently available). As far as Blu-ray is concerned at this point in time, DD+, TrueHD, and DTS-HD MA are out of the question. HD DVD's support may be limited, but Blu-ray's is nonexistent. So what do we have? Well, of course there's normal Dolby Digital and DTS, so at a minimum Blu-ray will offer the same audio quality as traditional DVD, without improvement. These can be transmitted by the Toslink or coaxial connections as well as HDMI. Although the player also has 5.1 analog outputs, its internal Dolby Digital decoder is limited to 2 channels and it doesn't have a DTS decoder at all. If you want surround sound, you won't be using the analog connections with DD or DTS soundtracks. You're probably wondering what the 5.1 analog outputs are good for, then. Because Blu-ray isn't ready to step up to the plate with any of the new audio formats, Sony has decided for its software releases that the next best solution is to provide the soundtrack in PCM 5.1 format. PCM is uncompressed and therefore should offer very high audio quality. The downside, as I mentioned earlier, is that an uncompressed soundtrack swallows up a huge chunk of the disc's bit budget that could be used to improve video quality instead. With the limited space on 25 gb single-layer discs and MPEG2 compression, it becomes a matter of priorities. Do you sacrifice picture quality for sound? For the first wave of Blu-ray releases, Sony's answer has been yes. Discs from Lionsgate, on the other hand, have foregone PCM in favor of standard DD and DTS, with some visible benefit to the video. When you do want to listen to a PCM soundtrack, your connection options are HDMI to a compatible receiver or 5.1 analog (PCM requires too much bandwidth for a Toslink or coaxial connection, and will be downconverted to 2 channels if you try to use those options). For multi-channel analog, the BD-P1000 has some serious limitations. While the player will allow you to set your speaker types to Large or Small, it has no ability to adjust speaker distances or volumes. Test tones are nonetheless available anyway, but Samsung programmed them incorrectly so that the tones come from the wrong speakers. And since the player has no internal DD 5.1 or DTS decoders for the analog outputs, you can't use a DVD calibration disc either. It is therefore impossible to calibrate your audio when using the analog outputs. I'm not sure what type of DACs Samsung has built into the unit, but the PCM tracks I've listened to so far have been a little bright and harsh in comparison to standard Dolby Digital or DTS decoded by my receiver. On the other side of the format war, HD DVDs have chosen to maximize their video quality with VC-1 compression and still get a lot of bang-for-the-buck with Dolby Digital Plus audio (some discs are also already encoded with the losslessly-compressed Dolby TrueHD 5.1, which offers audio transparent to the studio master without compromising the video quality by taking up as much space as uncompressed PCM). For half of the BD-P1000's list price, the $499 Toshiba HD-A1 has high quality SHARC DACs, full support for DD+ (and now TrueHD 5.1 as well), and all of the setup options you'll need to calibrate its 5.1 analog outputs. There's really no comparison here. For a $999 player, the audio capabilities of the Samsung BD-P1000 are really just shameful. Make no mistake, the Blu-ray format launch has been truly unimpressive. The $999 Samsung BD-P1000 has fewer features and lesser quality than its HD DVD competition at half the price. The first wave of software releases are also decidedly inferior to those on the other format. Even as a big High Definition fan, I cannot recommend this player for purchase. It is simply not worthy of the large investment. I've tried to give it the benefit of the doubt by putting the player and discs through their paces, but my judgement is clear. In terms of quality, Blu-ray has lost this first battle in the format war. Is it down for the count? I doubt it. The format is still backed by a larger selection of manufacturers and movie studios, at least at this time. Support may change in the future if one side goes under (witness Fox and Disney's migration to DVD after the competing DIVX format from Circuit City floundered back in 1999), but I suspect that this format war will drag on for a while before a decisive victor is declared. In order to survive, Blu-ray needs to both dramatically decrease its hardware costs and dramatically improve its software quality. Consistent production and usage of dual-layer 50 gb discs (assuming that's possible) will be a step in the right direction, but even more importantly the format sponsors need to dump the antiquated MPEG2 compression for a better codec. Players and discs should also start offering support for Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master Audio as soon as possible. Blu-ray backers have been shouting from the rooftops about their format's great potential, but the reality has not lived up to the hype. If that changes in the future, we're certainly prepared to re-evaluate the situation at that time, but as things stand right now Blu-ray is a bust.
Related Articles:
HD Talk Returns and Top 10 Discs
Warner Bros Turns Blu Top HD Discs of 2007 HD Holiday Guide Compete Archives
Review Staff
| Newsletter Subscribe
| Join DVD Talk Forum
| |||||||||


text:
What is a mental illness?
A mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life.
Serious mental illnesses include major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and borderline personality disorder. The good news about mental illness is that recovery is possible.
Mental illnesses can affect persons of any age, race, religion or income. Mental illnesses are not the result of personal weakness, lack of character or poor upbringing. Mental illnesses are treatable. Most people diagnosed with a serious mental illness can experience relief from their symptoms by actively participating in an individual treatment plan.
To find out more about specific mental illness click on the name to learn about symptoms, diagnosis, and recovery options.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Welcome to the Takeley Local History Society website!
Our village is estimated to be over 5,000 years old. it has bronze-age, iron-age, Roman and even Neolithic roots.
Takeley is a village of some 1,000 homes in the county of Essex (England). Despite being surrounded by countryside we are only 31 miles north of London and have Stansted (London's third airport) within our parish boundary.
Takeley Local History Society was formed in June 1998 as a result of overwhelming interest shown during a village appraisal into what the parishioners wanted for the new millennium.
The Society currently has a growing membership upwards of 60 and is open to all with an interest in the history of the parish of Takeley.
Membership is currently £7 per annum and at least 4 meetings a year are held at which talks are given and members can share their interests.
Members are encouraged to follow an area of study and then present it in whatever form is appropriate. This can vary from short talks to sharing old photographs to producing documents and reports which can be archived for the future. Where possible, archive material is copied into computer readable form to help ensure it is not lost in the future.
With an eye to the history of tomorrow, members are also encouraged to photograph their surroundings which are changing so rapidly as part of the development of Stansted airport.
We hope you enjoy this website and that it gives you a taste of the village that is Takeley.
Please note: If the font on this page does not match the Takeley Local History Society banner at the top of the page it is because you do not have Copperplate Gothic Bold font installed on your computer. Although not essential this font can be downloaded , unzipped and copied to your fonts directory to allow this site to be viewed as intended.


text:
Dazzling new scientific techniques are allowing archaeologists to track the movements and menus of extinct hominids through the seasons and years as they ate their way across the African landscape, helping to illuminate the evolution of human diets.
Piecing together relationships between the diets of hominids several million years ago to that of early and modern humans is allowing scientists to see how diet relates to the evolution of cognitive abilities, social structures, locomotion and even disease, said University of Colorado at Boulder anthropology Professor Matt Sponheimer. Sponheimer organized a session titled "The Evolution of Human Diets" at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting Feb. 12-15 in Chicago.
Sponheimer specializes in stable isotope analysis, comparing particular forms of the same chemical element, like carbon, present in fossil remains to help reconstruct past lives of hominids. Zapping hominid teeth with lasers, for example, frees telltale carbon gases from the enamel, allowing scientists to pinpoint the types of plants consumed by the hominids and the environments where they lived, said Sponheimer, who also relies on the microscopic wear of ancient hominid teeth for data on food consumption.
"Darwin surmised more than 150 years ago in 'The Descent of Man' that changes in the subsistence or environment of human ancestors likely led to the advent of modern humans," Sponheimer said. "Dietary resources can be a force for evolution."
One hominid genus under study by Sponheimer is the 2 million-year-old Paranthropus, a short, upright member of the australopithecine family that includes the Ethiopian fossil, Lucy. Discovered in 1974, Lucy, believed to be roughly 3 million years old, is regarded by many anthropologists as the matriarch of modern humans.
A 2006 study by Sponheimer of Paranthropus robustus documented its diverse diet, clouding the notion that it was driven to extinction by its picky eating habits. And a 1999 study led by Sponheimer indicated 3-million-year-old australopithecines may have even have been catching and eating small animals.
"Paranthropus is sometimes referred to as a nutcracker because its flat teeth and powerful jaw muscles appear designed to eat hard foods," he said. "But some research suggests that the most mechanically challenging foods like nuts were eaten only at limited times of the year. "In addition, foods not previously considered to have been consumed in significant quantities, like sedges, grasses, seeds and perhaps even animal foods, were a significant part of the Paranthropus diet."
Roughly 2.5 million years ago, the australopithicenes are thought to have split into the genus Homo and the now-extinct genus Paranthropus, including South Africa's Paranthropus robustus and East Africa's Paranthropus boisei, said Sponheimer. Research presently under way at CU-Boulder indicates that while Paranthropus robustus and Paranthropus boisei are almost indistinguishable anatomically, they may have had very different diets.
Other intriguing research under way by Sponheimer and his colleagues hints that some female australopithecines, including members of the Paranthropus genus, died in different geographic areas than where they were born. The researchers are comparing such data to social patterns of chimpanzees, in which females generally migrate away from their original ranges and move into new areas -- the opposite of behavior charted in most other primates, said Sponheimer.
"Textbooks treat these ancient hominids as static piles of fossil bones," said Sponheimer. "We treat them as biological organisms moving across the landscape. It's entirely possible that many things we thought we knew about them were wrong, and pages of textbooks will have to have to be re-written."
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Colorado at Boulder. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Cite This Page:


text:
View All Calendars is the default. Choose Select a Calendar to view a specific calendar. Subscribe to calendar notifications to receive email or text alerts with information regarding current events in our community.
Free public event, pre-registration on website, accepting those without appointments, outdoor walk-up/drive-through event, Revive Community Health, Register at: http://www.rchcovidtesting.com/
Free to the public, online registration, accepting those without appointments, outdoor walk-up event, Paradigm Laboratories, Register at https://www.labfinder.com/phoenix/
Free public event, pre-registration on website, appointment required, outdoor drive-through event, Rapid Reliable Testing, Register at rrtesting.app/maricopa


text:
Slightly neurotic, greasy, larger homeless man that frequents State Street on a regular basis, who also supports the UW Greek System and LOOOVES the GAmma Phi ladies. Must ride a bicycle with a police scanner attatched to his hip. Hence the name, Scanner.
Scanner Dan, also look for Piccolo Man in bright orange suit located outside the bookstore playing his piccolo. Also, look for Shim Saxophone player up near the capitol or outside Statesider playing Pink Panther till the weeeee hours of the morning.
by Bass Mouth September 20, 2003


text:
The second conference to be hosted in the year 2002 by the FAO Electronic Forum on Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture deals directly with a topic that has arisen on various occasions in previous conferences of the Forum - the role and focus that biotechnology should have in the agricultural research agendas in developing countries. By dedicating an entire conference to this theme we hope to encourage a useful and positive dialogue that will provide food for thought and be of assistance to policy makers in developing countries. The outcome of the conference will also be used in the preparation of The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2003, which is one of FAO's main publications, providing an annual report on current developments affecting world agriculture.
At the "World Food Summit: five years later", which took place on 10-13 June 2002 at FAO Headquarters, Rome, Italy and was attended by delegations from more than 180 countries, Heads of State and Government unanimously adopted the Declaration of the World Food Summit: Five Years Later. Among other things, the Declaration considered (in paragraph 25) agricultural research and biotechnology, stating "We call on the FAO, in conjunction with the CGIAR and other international research institutes, to advance agricultural research and research into new technologies, including biotechnology. The introduction of tried and tested new technologies including biotechnology should be accomplished in a safe manner and adapted to local conditions to help improve agricultural productivity in developing countries. We are committed to study, share and facilitate the responsible use of biotechnology in addressing development needs".
The importance of agricultural research is clear when consideration is given to the very difficult challenges that farmers in developing countries must face in the coming decades. For example, Pardey and Beintema in a recent report (2001) from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) express this quite clearly: "Little land remains for the expansion of agricultural production (and some of the land, water, and other natural resources needed for agriculture are being degraded and diverted to other uses in other sectors), so crop and livestock yields must continue to increase for the decades ahead. They must then be maintained - at these much higher levels - for the foreseeable future against environmental, biological, and other factors that undermine past gains in production. Continued strong performance in research and innovation is needed to maintain a favorable food balance if, in addition to the 6 billion people we already have, we are to feed 3 billion more over the next half century".
In the same report, Pardey and Beintema provide an overview of the status and key trends in global agricultural research. They estimate that investments in public agricultural research rose from $11.8 to $21.7 billion (in inflation-adjusted terms) from 1976 to 1995, although in some areas (e.g. Sub-Saharan Africa) growth in spending halted in the most recent years analysed (1991 to 1995). Considering the latest figures (circa 1995), a total of 47% of investments were made in developed countries while 53% went to developing countries, specifically to China (10%), Asia and Pacific, excluding China (21%), Latin America and the Caribbean (9%), the Middle East and North Africa (7%) and Sub-Saharan Africa (6%). The influence of individual countries was quite significant. Four countries (France, Germany, Japan and the United States) accounted for two-thirds of the spending in developed countries while three countries (Brazil, China and India) accounted for 44% of spending in developing countries.
These public sector investments were, however, quite small when expressed as percentages of the agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the percentages were lower in the developing than the developed world. Investments represented just 0.6 and 2.6% of the agricultural GDP in developing and developed countries respectively (i.e. for every $100 of agricultural output, developing countries invested $0.62 in public agricultural research and development). Investment per capita was also considerably lower in the developing world i.e. $2.5 versus $12 in developing and developed countries respectively, or $8.5 versus $594 spent per agricultural worker.
In addition to publicly funded agricultural research, Pardey and Beintema estimate that funding from the private sector accounted for an additional $11.5 billion in the mid-1990's, representing roughly one-third of the global agriculture research investments. However, unlike public sector resources, these were invested almost exclusively (94%) in developed countries. As a consequence, just over half of all agricultural research carried out in developed countries was funded by the private sector whereas in developing countries, research was almost totally funded by the public sector.
Biotechnology is a collection of tools that can be applied to many areas of food and agriculture. The range of tools is very broad, as can be seen from the Background Documents to the first four conferences of this Forum, dedicated to the crop, forestry, animal and fishery sectors respectively. Some of the technologies may be applied to all these sectors as well as to agro-industry, such as the use of molecular DNA markers, gene manipulation and gene transfer. Others, instead, are more specific, such as vegetative reproduction (crops and forest trees), embryo transfer and freezing (livestock) or triploidisation and sex-reversal (fish).
Some of the biotechnologies, in particular, offer tremendous potential to address real problems facing farmers in developing countries. For example, the area of genomics, allowing the identification and characterisation of individual genes influencing traits such as disease or stress resistance, growth rate or yield, promises to be of great value. The genetic material (genomes) of several hundred species, including mammals, plants, fish, bacteria and viruses, has already been sequenced or sequencing is in progress and the information generated from genomics studies in other fields, such as human medicine or basic science, may also be useful for the application of genomics to food and agriculture.
There are no clear figures in the literature on the relative resources being invested by the various stakeholders in agricultural biotechnology research. The information that is available focuses primarily on the crop sector where it is clear that the vast majority (maybe 65-80%) of agricultural biotechnology research is carried out by the private sector in developed countries. For example, Byerlee and Fischer in a discussion paper from the World Bank (2000) compile some rough figures which give a general idea of the relative investments being made by the different players. The figures indicate that, annually, the private sector probably invests more than $1.5 billion, mostly in developed countries; the public research organisations and universities in developed countries invest up to $1.0 billion; the public sector national agricultural research systems (NARS) in developing countries invest $100-150 million from their own resources (excluding donor funding); the 16 international agricultural research centres (IARCs) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) together invest roughly $25 million (about 8% of their total budget) and, finally, donors, such as the Rockefeller Foundation or non-profit technology transfer organisations, invest $ 40-50 million in developing countries. The biggest single source of investment is therefore the private sector and the majority (about 90%) of biotechnology research is carried out in developed countries.
Although the investments made in the developing world are relatively small in this area, there are also major differences between the individual developing countries. In the same report, Byerlee and Fischer classify the NARS into three main groups based on their capacity in plant breeding and biotechnology research. The first group ("very strong") includes the NARS in Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa, which have strong capacity in molecular biology, including the capacity to develop new tools for their own specific needs. The second group ("medium to strong") has considerable capacity in applied plant breeding research, as well as capacity to apply molecular tools (markers and transformation protocols), but they depend on tools developed elsewhere. The third group ("fragile or weak") has weak capacity in plant breeding and virtually no capacity in molecular biology. They estimate that the NARS invest on average 5-10% of their research expenditures on biotechnology, which comes primarily from the NARS in the first group and a few in the second group. From the first group, recent trends in China are worth a specific mention. Here, the government (which funds almost all plant biotechnology research) has increasingly prioritised biotechnology in recent years, to the extent that the resources allocated to plant biotechnology in the crop research budget have risen to 9% in 1999 and where it is estimated that China accounts for more than half of the developing world's expenditures on plant biotechnology (Huang, Rozelle, Pray and Wang, Science, 25 January 2002, 295, 674-677).
The large differences between developing countries with respect to biotechnology capacity and financial/human investments (and to the focus of their biotechnology research) is also clear from the data in FAO-BioDec, a database developed by FAO containing information on the development, adoption and application of crop biotechnologies in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Near East. Information is organised in two sections - the first covering production of genetically modified (GM) crops and the second covering other technologies, grouped into four classes: plant propagation (e.g. anther culture, micropropagation, embryo rescue, protoplast fusion and culture), microbial (e.g. development of biopesticides or biofertilizers), molecular markers and, finally, diagnostics (e.g. enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA)). The database is currently at the pre-release stage and will be made publicly available on the FAO Biotechnology website towards the end of 2002.
Results from a preliminary, and far from comprehensive, analysis show, for example, that the majority of countries in Latin America and Asia are either carrying out research on or field testing GM crops, while few countries in the other regions have reached that stage. The analysis indicates that countries like Argentina, Brazil, China, Cuba, Egypt, India, Mexico and South Africa have well-developed biotechnology programmes, with a wide range of initiatives. In addition, countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines and Thailand in Asia; Cameroon, Morocco, Kenya, Nigeria, Tunisia and Zimbabwe in Africa; and Chile, Colombia and Venezuela in Latin America have medium-sized biotechnology programmes, making use of a wide range of technologies, including molecular markers and diagnostics, although the number of initiatives underway is not substantial.
Because agricultural biotechnology research is primarily being carried out in developed countries and by the private sector in these countries, the research and the biotechnology products being developed or released are directed primarily to the needs of farmers in the developed (and not developing) countries and of richer (and not poor) farmers that can afford the products. For example, in a recent (2002)Technology Policy Brief from the Institute for New Technologies of the United Nations University, Anthony Arundel presents an analysis of over 11,000 GM crop field trials carried out in the United States and the European Union which confirms that most of the field trials are conducted by private firms and that only a small number involve tropical crops and traits for stress resistance.
Abiotic stress (e.g. drought, frost, heat or salt) is a major limitation to agricultural production in parts of the developing world. A vast area of soils contains an excess of heavy metals in Brazil and Africa. Steadily increasing acreage of agricultural land in Asia and elsewhere is becoming sterile because of salinity from poorly managed irrigation practices. In many environments, crop performance is severely limited by drought. Research investments in these areas could have major impacts on food security and hunger. However, preliminary analysis of the data in FAO-BioDec indicates that no GM crops resistant to abiotic stress have been released so far in developing countries and that only six GM varieties are currently under field testing - in Bolivia (frost tolerant potato), China (cold tolerant tomato), Egypt (salt tolerant wheat), India (moisture tolerant Brassica) and Thailand (salt tolerant rice and drought tolerant rice). By comparison, for herbicide resistance, there are already 3 GM crop varieties commercially available and 50 under field testing in developing countries. The database shows that 28 research initiatives are underway for abiotic stress resistance in developing countries. Most of the research is being carried out in five Asian countries. Very little research is being done on drought resistance. Work on aluminium-resistant varieties is underway for wheat in Mexico and sugar beet in China. Little research is being done on cold tolerance, although Bolivia and China have progressed to field trials in potato and tomato respectively. The amount of research and testing devoted to abiotic stress resistance is insufficient compared to the real needs of developing countries.
Biotechnology clearly offers tremendous promise for addressing key problems in food and agriculture. However, resources for agricultural research are very limited in developing countries and, as a consequence, their policy makers are faced with a series of very difficult choices. How much importance should they give to biotechnology research, how should they allocate the biotechnology research resources with respect to the different agricultural sectors or to the different kinds of biotechnologies available. How should they prioritise the different kinds of problems (and specifically those affecting poor farmers) that might be addressed by the research? How should developing countries carry out this research - by focusing on their NARS or in collaboration with other countries in their region or with the private sector or the universities in the developed world? These are the kinds of issues that should be raised and discussed throughout the conference. More specifically, the items that we would like to see discussed are:
- Of the limited resources (human and financial) dedicated to agricultural research in developing countries, how much should be devoted to biotechnology? - Of the resources devoted to agricultural biotechnology research in developing countries, what priorities should be given to the different agricultural sectors (crop, fishery, forest, agro-industry or livestock)? How should these priorities be set? - Of the resources devoted to agricultural biotechnology research in developing countries, which biotechnologies should be prioritised (e.g. use of molecular markers, tissue culture, genetic modification etc.)? - Which objectives (e.g. increased production, better animal health etc.) should biotechnology research be prioritising within each of these sectors? - At which level (regional, sub-regional or national) should the objectives of research in agricultural biotechnology be prioritised? - Should some (or all) of the biotechnology research in developing countries preferably be carried out within the NARS or through collaborative regional efforts? - For agricultural biotechnology research in developing countries, how important should collaboration with the IARCs be? - For agricultural biotechnology research in developing countries, how important should collaboration with the private sector or universities in developed countries be? - Should developing countries focus on developing the biotechnology products themselves or should they focus on adapting biotechnologies that have been developed elsewhere? - Individual developing countries differ greatly in their capacities to do biotechnology research and in the resources they have available for such activities. How important are these differences for the role and focus of biotechnology in the agricultural research agenda? - The needs of small farmers are generally being ignored in the so-called "biotechnology revolution". How can the biotechnology research agenda in developing countries be focused towards their needs? What concrete actions can be taken?
NB: When submitting messages (which should not exceed 600 words), participants are requested to ensure that their messages address some of the above elements. Before sending a message, members of the Forum are requested to have a look at the Rules of the Forum and the Guidelines for Participation in the E-mail Conferences. These were provided when joining the Forum, and they can also be found on the Forum website
Conference 8 of the FAO Electronic Forum on Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture was entitled "What should be the role and focus of biotechnology in the agricultural research agendas of developing countries ?" It ran from 13 November to 16 December 2002. The Summary Document of the conference (14 pages) provides a summary of the main arguments and concerns discussed during the conference.
The agricultural research agenda should be defined using a "bottom-up" approach, based on the needs of local communities in developing countries. The needs and realities of small farmers in developing countries require special attention in the research agenda. Research is very important for developing country agriculture and more public funding of biotechnology research is needed. There is general agreement about the positive role that non-GMO biotechnology research can play in developing countries but opinions are divided about use of scarce agricultural research resources for GMO research. Biotechnology research can and should complement research into conventional technologies. Research collaboration, both within and between countries, is essential for developing countries but there are some reservations about public-private sector collaborations. Intellectual property rights are an issue of concern for biotechnology research in developing countries. With reduced national research budgets, regional collaborations have special importance. Opinions are divided on whether developing countries should develop their own biotechnology products and techniques or whether they should adapt those developed elsewhere. These were some of the outcomes of a moderated e-mail conference, entitled "What should be the role and focus of biotechnology in the agricultural research agendas of developing countries?", hosted by the FAO Biotechnology Forum from 13 November to 16 December 2002. During the 5-week conference, 347 people subscribed and 128 messages were posted, about 60% from people living in developing countries. Most were from people working in research centres/organisations (35%), universities (25%) and NGOs (20%), with the remainder coming from independent consultants (10%) or people working in government agencies or FAO.
The messages posted during the conference are provided here, by subject or by date. They can also be retrieved by email and as monthly archives, providing messages posted in November (messages numbered 1-66, 209 KB), and in December (messages numbered 67-128, 200 KB).
By subject (in order of posting):
1.Very little public funds should be devoted to biotechnology2.Disapponting benefits from GMO research3.National breeding programmes4.Room for all technologies?5.Biotech is an important tool to achieve sustainability in LDCs6.Re: Very little public funds should be devoted to biotechnology7.Re: Very little public funds should be devoted to biotechnology8.Biotechnology research in the public sector9.Fund public good biotechnology
10.Transgenic crop technology11.GE vs. non-GE biotech research12.Re GE vs. non-GE biotech research13.Multinational companies and research14.Farmers need more technology options15.Re: Biotechnology research in the public sector16.Re: Biotechnology research in the public sector17.What should be the role of biotechnology in a country like Venezuela18.Biotechnology, liberalism and the poor19.Complementary focus and synergy
20.Re: Farmers need more technology options21.The importance of biotechnology in rice research22.Re: What should be the role of biotechnology in a country like Venezuela23.Asian needs24.Other areas of biotechnology25.Necessity of the participation of the poor to define the right research priority26.Re: Other areas of biotechnology27.Re: Necessity of the participation of the poor to define the right research priority28.GE crops and IPRs29.Re: GE crops and IPRs
30.Publically funded genomics research31.Developing countries stand to gain from agricultural biotechnology32.Re: Publically funded genomics research33.Theories of direct nutrition and of superior races34.Re: Publically funded genomics research35.Developing countries stand to gain from agricultural biotechnology36.Capacity of developing the technology and holding IPRs37.Biotechnology should contribute to wealth creation in developing countries38.National agrobiotechnology must be supported globally39.Place and role of biotechnology in agricultural research agenda in developing countries
40.Re: Theories of direct nutrition and of superior races41.Re: Developing countries stand to gain from agricultural biotechnology42.Site-specific agroecological research43.Rice production44.Re: Capacity of developing the technology and holding IPRs45.Funding research programs46.Nutritional security and agribiotech47.Pooling together regional resources in agricultural biotech research48.Agricultural research in developing countries // cake icing49.Re: Pooling together regional resources in agricultural biotech research
50.Farmers making choices51.GM crop research and field testing52.Focus of biotechnology research in developing countries53.Priority setting in agricultural research // aircrafts54.Are we pursuing the wrong research objectives?55.Save the funds for conventional agricultural research56.Biotechnology ofen more justified by faith in technological progress than by rigorous analysis57.Re: Pooling together regional resources in agricultural biotech research58.Re: Priority setting in agricultural research // aircrafts59.Fund conventional research
60.Biotechnology research61.Re: Are we pursuing the wrong research objectives?62.Re: Are we pursuing the wrong research objectives?63.Re: Are we pursuing the wrong research objectives?64.Re: Are we pursuing the wrong research objectives?65.Re: Are we pursuing the wrong research objectives?66.Crop biotech reaching small farmers67.Re: Are we pursuing the wrong research objectives?--. Message from the Moderator68.Re: Priority setting in agricultural research // aircrafts69.Re: Are we pursuing the wrong research objectives
70.GM crops in gene centres71.GM crops and Argentina72.Optimal allocation of resources - technologies73.Research into tracing GMOs74.Transgenic research75.What should be the role and focus of biotech research?76.Establishing biotechnology priorities in agriculture for Sri Lanka77.IPRs - Review of TRIPS 27.3(b), Research Exemptions & Training78.Research for fruit farmers in Egypt79.SOFA 2003
80.Research into bio-fertilisers and bio-pesticides81.Re: Research into bio-fertilisers and bio-pesticides82.Re: SOFA 200383.Research on organic biotechnologies84.Realistic priorities needed for biotech research in developing countries85.More focus needed in forest biotechnology research86.A farmers perspective - research87.Where to put the buck88.Fish based integration systems89.Re: Realistic priorities needed for biotech research in developing countries
90.Synthesis of e-conference91.Re: Synthesis of e-conference92.Priorities for biotech research in developing countries93.Re: Synthesis of e-conference94.A participatory research agenda95."Work group" research96.The best technology97.Emerging economies need emergent biotechnologies98.Biotechnology in developing countries99.Farm animal biotechnology research
100.Re: A participatory research agenda101.Re: Emerging economies need emergent biotechnologies102.Pool regional resources and use independent research103.Enabling environments104.Fish farming and biotechnology in developing countries105.Human capacity and stakeholder participation in biotechnology research106.Genetic modification and public good research107.Re: Fish farming and biotechnology in developing countries108.The status of biotech research in agriculture109."Scientifically illiterate, politically clueless"
110.Re: Fish farming and biotechnology in developing countries111.Democratize biotechnology processes112.Re: Democratize biotechnology processes113.Modern biotechnology research in Turkey114.Meeting the research needs of small farmers in developing countries
115.Convincing farmers of research results116.Corporate biotech research117.Priorities for agricultural research in biotechnology for developing countries118.Role and focus of biotechnology research119.Making breeding improvements succeed
120.A contribution from Bolivia121.Biotechnology esearch objectives // Country collaborations122.Re: Meeting the research needs of small farmers in developing countries123.Policy research on gene business124.Re: Corporate biotech research125.Biotechnological research technologies are context-dependent126.Training biotechnology researchers in developing countries127.Farmers expertise and biotechnology research128.Demand-driven research to benefit small farmers***Closing message from Moderator - 17 December 2002
By date:
The conference runs from 13 November to 16 December 2002, the last messages being posted on 17 December
Archives November 2002
Archives December 2002
All messages posted during the conference will be stored and can be retrieved. The messages are stored in monthly files. To retrieve them, follow instructions below. The log files will be sent to you in return as a single e-mail message. Note: you must have joined the Forum and subscribed to Conference 8 (which uses biotech-room4) to access the e-mail archives.
To get all messages posted in Conference 8 during November 2002, send an e-mail message to [email protected] leaving the subject blank and entering the one-line text message as follows:
send listlog/biotech-room4.nov2002
Note: lower case letters as shown here, and not upper case letters, must be used. No other text should be added to the message (e.g., mail signature).
To get all messages posted in Conference 8 during December 2002, send an e-mail message to [email protected] leaving the subject blank and entering the one-line text message as follows:
send listlog/biotech-room4.dec2002


text:
I stopped by Rob Minervini's studio in SOMA this week to see where all the magic happens, and I was not let down! His studio is filled with beautiful work. Rob has a show opening up this Saturday, Sunken Dreams, at Gallery Hijinks and in July he will be a part of The Bay Area Now 6 exhibition at YBCA. Below you'll see past works and works in progress for the YBCA show. Can't wait to see the finished pieces! -Ashley Taylor
I have a mix of a fine art as well as a public art and mural painting background. I'm from the Philadelphia area and recently became a dual Italian / American citizen which I am excited about.


text:
I'm continuing in my annual trek through the American Library Association Notable Books List. Over the Presidents Day holiday, I finished reading "Citizens of London: The Americans who Stood with Britain in its Darkest, Finest Hour" by Lynne Olson.
This book exemplifies what I love about each year's Notable List–it brings forward splendid books that got little attention.
"Citizens of London" also allows me to get up on my soapbox to encourage America to read more nonfiction, or to read it at all.
Lynne Olson does a great job of creating a narrative thread in this book, even as she weaves in necessary information to create context. In this case, the story is about the Americans in London, primarily a small group of men, who worked long and hard to promote the British case for the United States to become involved in World War II.
Readers may recall that many in the United States held a strong isolationist stance in the late 1930s. President Franklin Roosevelt instituted the lend-lease program to assist Britain, but it was seen in Britain as not nearly enough, at too dear a price. Journalist Edward R. Murrow, Ambassador to the Court of St. James Gil Winant, and Lend-Lease representative Averell Harriman became "citizens of London" and promoted the position that the United States had to do more to support England against Germany.
Of course, much changed with the United States entering the war after Pearl Harbor. Olson takes this story through the end of the war and just past, showing how these three men continued to play a role in maintaining the relationship between the United States and Britain. The story begins fairly simply with the focus on the three men, and as the war progresses, more people enter the picture as joint military campaigns must be agreed to and staged, and finally a post-war world shaped.
I'm left with much respect for these three, and for Dwight Eisenhower, who was placed in the position of having to make a joint command work.
I'm also left with Olson's gift of connecting these world-changing events to the everyday lives of common people in London during this time. Her ability to tell a specific story that illustrates a wider point is what made me enjoy this book so much.
I'll recommend this to readers who enjoy history, and to that large group of people with special interest in World War II. I'll also recommend it to fiction readers who are willing to dip into something a little different, into a nonfiction book that still follows the thread of a compelling story, and that develops interesting characters.


text:
Maps, printouts, a bottle of water, your phone – everything has its place in the Volvo FL cab. But if you want to add more storage, you can. Optional units mean that you can hit the road with everything you need to hand.
Above the windscreen are two storage units, and four DIN compartments for things like your communication radio and tachograph. There's also a large overhead compartment fitted with a net or lid – perfect for items you need to reach quickly.
The space between the seats is perfect for a tunnel storage compartment. They come in a variety of sizes and with different features, so you can tailor it to your needs. We can also fit boxes on the engine cover and put a unit behind the passenger seat. Whatever you need, we'll add it.


text:
Staples Center Parking What You Need To Know
Going down to the Staples Center, LA Live or Nokia Theater in Los Angeles traffic can in itself be headache enough but finding an actual parking spot for your event can be as well. With 18000 people going to an event at the Staples Center and if there is a concert at Nokia on the same night can turn that headache into a migraine.
We highly recommend purchasing parking for your concert, sports or theater event when you purchase tickets for it but if not here are some options for parking at the Staples Center.
Valet Parking
The Luxe City Center Hotel offers Valet Parking which varies on price depending on the event that's going on. The average price to valet is $20 – $30 to park and you can enter from Figueroa St. The Luxe is located at 1020 S. Figueroa, Los Angeles, CA 90015.
Note: If you're just picking up tickets from Barry's Tickets you can tell the Valet your just running in to pick up tickets.
The Staples Center also offers Valet Parking in the East Garage.
General Parking
The West Garage (Lot W) The Lot opens 3 ½ hours prior to event times, you can pay a flat rate from $10 to $30 which depends on the event you are seeing which you pay when you enter the lot off Chick Hearn Court.
The Staples Center itself has roughly over 3000 parking spaces which are at Staples Center owned parking lots. Only Lots 1 and C open 2 ½ hours prior to your event, all other Staples Center owned lots open 90 minutes prior to your event and the Staples Center staff remains in the Lots till 60 minutes after the event.
Electric Vehicle Charging Stations near Staples Center Parking or LA Live Parking
Yes, there are several vehicle charging stations around that area. There are ten charging stations on Level 2 at the LA Live garage. There are six vehicle charging stations which are located at 1005 W. Chick Hearn Ct West Garage and another four charging stations located in the East Garage at 800 W. Olympic Blvd.
Disabled Staples Center Parking
Around the Staples Center there is designated disability parking for van-accessible space, you can call Parking Services at (213) 765 – 6815 to find out more information.
No Parking as well as Tow Away Zones
Keep your eyes out for No Parking / Tow Away Zones as there are numerous areas around the Staples Center and LA Live Campus that are marked as No Parking or Tow Away Zones the main No Parking Zone is between Chick Hearn Court and Figueroa which is in between the Staples Center and LA Live. You will ticketed and or Towed Away.
UBER, Taxis, Buses and Limousine Staples Center parking
UBER, Taxis, Buses and Limos must drop off passengers in designated areas around the Staples Center and LA Live which are located in on Figueroa St heading southbound between 11th street and 12th street as well as on Chick Hearn Ct heading east bound between LA Live Way and Georgia St. You can also check on the Staples Center website for updates to parking areas.
Want more information on the Staples Center itself feel free to checkout our Staples Center seating chart to view the different layouts of Concerts or Sporting events at the Staples Center. You can also get the Staples Center address or directions if you need them as well. You can also checkout 5 reasons
You can learn more about Barry's Tickets Los Angeles office located caddy-corner from the Staples Center.
Barry's Ticket Office is located caddy-corner from the Staples Center inside the Luxe Hotel.
Barry's Tickets is located caddy corner from the Staples Center itself. Located inside the Luxe Hotel it's a fast, easy and convenient way to pick up or purchase Staples Center Concerts, Sports or Theater events even after the start of the event. You can also pick up all Sports, Concert and Theater tickets from our office free of any delivery charge.


text:
Other personalized homepages like Netvibes and My Yahoo show a snippet from the post in a custom overlay and open a reader to display the full content. Loading multiple instances of the Google Reader gadget for different folders is a good alternative for iGoogle's feed modules, especially if you subscribe to many feeds.
{ Thanks, Stephen. }


text: Sutter Brown Steps In For Governor In Ice Bucket Challenge Wednesday, August 20, 2014 | Sacramento, CA If you use any type of social media platform, you've heard about the Ice Bucket Challenge. From celebrities and athletes to politicians, it seems everybody's dousing themselves with buckets of ice water and then posting a video for all to see. This week, Mayor Kevin Johnson got in on the action. He posted his video Tuesday and called out Gov. Jerry Brown, Maria Shriver and basketball legend Hakeem Olajuwon to do the same.   While the governor himself didn't respond to the challenge, it seems that the first dog of California, Sutter Brown, was willing to step in. Today, the Sutter Brown facebook page featured a post of the corgi getting splashed with water. The post read: "Hey Kevin Johnson, standing in for the Gov Jerry Brown. A small bucket for a big cause. #ALSIceBucketChallenge." There was also a message from "Sutter Brown" stating: "Dad donated too." Post by Sutter Brown. The #ALSIceBucketChallenge is a wildly successful fundraising campaign for the ALS Association, a non-profit group that raises awareness and provides services for people with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The campaign involves dumping a bucket of ice water on yourself and then challenging three others to do the same on social media or donate $100 to the ALS Association. But some have slammed the campaign, saying it's another example of "slacktivism," where people show their support for a cause without actually having to take any action. In drought-stricken California, there are plenty of concerns that the stunt wastes water. (Johnson even addresses this on his video saying he was doing his challenge while standing on his "dry lawn" in order to conserve water). Despite the criticism, the ALS Association is crediting the campaign for a recent deluge in donations. According to a press release, the ALS Association has received $31.5 million in donations this year compared to the $1.9 million it received during the same time period last year. -Capital Public Radio Staff Follow us for more stories like this CapRadio provides a trusted source of news because of you. As a nonprofit organization, donations from people like you sustain the journalism that allows us to discover stories that are important to our audience. If you believe in what we do and support our mission, please donate today. Donate Today


text:
In July 1995, 8000 Muslim boys and men were killed in a genocide in a tiny town in Bosnia, close to the Serbian border, as part of the Bosnian war. This past week, the Bosnian Serb leader at the time has been found responsible for this crime, and sentenced to 40 year jail.
Driving through this tiny town, and stopping to pay my respects, was a powerful end to my time in Bosnia, as the memory of these tragedies of the war hovered over much of the country, and stories shared about the nation.
Now perhaps, people can start to heal.
There were also many messages pleading to "Never Forget: and "Never Again". But then, the world does not learn. These horrors continue today, in Sudan. In Myanmar. In Syria. In Yemen. In so many places.


text:
Flybridge is Hiring an Associate - Know Anyone?
In the face of all the hoopla over the VC industry contracting, Flybridge Capital Partners is hiring an associate to join our investment team. You can read the job description and learn how to apply for the associate position here.
Please feel free to pass this news around. We would love to run an open process, as many other VC firms have done so successfully, to find a terrific candidate.


text:
"Why Should We Hire You?" is another broad question that can take you down the wrong road unless you've done some thinking ahead of time. This question is purely about selling yourself. Think of yourself as the product. Why should the customer buy?
The Wrong Track
Spencer answers by saying, "Because I need and want a job." That's nice, but the bottom line here is, "What can you do for us?"
Mariana says, "I'm a hard worker and really want to work for this company." The majority of people think of themselves as hard workers -- and why this company?
The Right Track
Tom's answer to this question is, "Because I'm a good fit for the position." Getting warmer, but more details, please.
Sharon answers, "I have what it takes to solve problems and do the job." This is the best answer so far. Expand on this, and you've got it.
Develop a Sales Statement
The more detail you give, the better your answer will be. This is not a time to talk about what you want. Rather, it is a time to summarize your accomplishments and relate what makes you unique.
Product Inventory Exercise
The bottom line of this question is, "What can you do for this company?"
Start by looking at the job description or posting. What is the employer stressing as requirements of the job? What will it take to get the job done? Make a list of those requirements.
Next, do an inventory to determine what you have to offer as a fit for those requirements. Think of two or three key qualities you have to offer that match those the employer is seeking. Don't underestimate personal traits that make you unique; your energy, personality type, working style and people skills are all very relevant to any job.
The Sales Pitch: You Are the Solution
From the list of requirements, match what you have to offer and merge the two into a summary statement. This is your sales pitch. It should be no more than two minutes long and should stress the traits that make you unique and a good match for the job.
Example: "From our conversations, it sounds as if you're looking for someone to come in and take charge immediately. It also sounds like you are experiencing problems with some of your database systems. With my seven years of experience working with financial databases, I have saved companies thousands of dollars by streamlining systems.
"My high energy and quick learning style enable me to hit the ground and size up problems rapidly. My colleagues would tell you I'm a team player who maintains a positive attitude and outlook. I have the ability to stay focused in stressful situations and can be counted on when the going gets tough. I'm confident I would be a great addition to your team."
What Makes You Unique?
Completing an exercise around this question will allow you to concentrate on your unique qualities. Like snowflakes, no two people are alike. Take some time to think about what sets you apart from others.
- "Never miss deadlines."
- "Bring order to chaos."
- "Good sense of humor."
- "Great attention to detail."
Let the interviewer know that you have been listening to the problem and have what it takes to do the job -- that you are the solution to the problem.
Want to Know More About the Military?
Be sure to get the latest news about the U.S. military, as well as critical info about how to join and all the benefits of service. Subscribe to Military.com and receive customized updates delivered straight to your inbox.


text:
Falcon flies to space but misses orbit BY STEPHEN CLARK SPACEFLIGHT NOW Posted: March 20, 2007 The Falcon 1 rocket, a gleaming symbol of hopes to revolutionize space exploration through private industry, took its second shot at orbit Tuesday night but fell back to Earth after experiencing a problem mid-way through the ascent.
Controllers lost contact with the Falcon during the burn of the second stage that would have placed the rocket into orbit around Earth. "We did encounter, late in the second stage burn, a roll-control anomaly," Elon Musk, founder and chief executive officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., said in a post-launch call with reporters. Live video from cameras mounted aboard the rocket's second stage showed increasing oscillations about five minutes after liftoff, just before the public webcast was cut off. The rolling prevented the necessary speed to achieve a safe orbit, instead sending the stage on a suborbital trajectory back into the atmosphere. Musk speculated leading candidates for the roll control problem included a helium leak or a failure of a roll control thruster. Both would be relatively easy to fix, he said. "Of all the possible causes, there's very few that would really take much effort to address," Musk said. Burning highly refined kerosene and liquid oxygen, the first stage's Merlin engine produced nearly 80,000 pounds of thrust as it gracefully guided the rocket through clouds on an eastward trajectory from its launch site in the central Pacific Ocean. The Merlin drained its supply of propellant within three minutes, and the Falcon 1 shed its first stage a few seconds later. The upper stage then fired its Kestrel engine for a planned six-and-a-half minute burn to place the rocket into low Earth orbit. But engineers stopped receiving live radio signals from the second stage several minutes prior to its scheduled arrival in orbit. Musk said the stage reached an altitude of about 200 miles when the roll oscillation caused the Kestrel engine to shut down. "The high likelihood is that it re-entered after less than a full orbit," Musk said. The rolling motion could have caused the second stage's propellant to slosh outward like a centrifuge, which would lead to the engine switching off, Musk said. The Falcon 1 was targeting an orbit stretching from 205 miles to 425 miles in altitude with an inclination of about 9 degrees. Engineers had programmed the second stage to conduct a second burn about 45 minutes into the flight to demonstrate the engine's capability to reignite. Despite the control problem that doomed the mission's goal of reaching orbit, Musk said he was pleased with the progress made by the company since the Falcon's maiden test flight ended in failure last year. "I think I'll characterize this as a very good day for SpaceX," Musk said. "We successfully reached space and really retired almost all the risk associated with the rocket. So I feel very good about where things are." Much of the risk with rocket launches come from engine operations and stage separation systems, and Musk said those performed well in Tuesday's flight. "I would say we've retired probably in excess of 90 percent of risk associated with the rocket," Musk said. "It definitely could have gone a little better today, but if we've retired almost all the risk associated with the rocket, I think it is hard to characterize that (as) anything but a success, at least in my book, because this is a test launch of the rocket and not a satellite launch," he said. Bankrolled by the fortune of Musk, a technology mogul and co-founder of the online payment system PayPal, SpaceX designed and built the Falcon 1 rocket to significantly lower the cost of space launches and revolutionize the space industry. The 70-foot-tall booster came within moments of blastoff during Tuesday's first attempted countdown, but computers ordered a dramatic last-second abort when the rocket's first stage Merlin engine showed signs of trouble after ignition. Countdown software detected the engine's chamber pressure was slightly below normal, but that was likely due to chilled rocket-grade kerosene fuel being fed into the engine, according to Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX vice president of business development. The launch team opted to load warmer fuel into the first stage fuel tanks and try again, and the countdown proceeded smoothly until clocks reached zero. "This was a pretty nerve-racking day, to say the least," Musk said. "The rocket business is definitely not a low-stress business, that's for sure." SpaceX officials said they remain confident in their plans to launch paying customers' payloads as soon as this year. "We've been in touch with our customers," Musk said. "They are very excited by the results of this test, and so we feel really good." The next launch of the Falcon 1 was scheduled for August carrying to orbit the TacSat 1 tactical research satellite for the Naval Research Laboratory. A subsequent mission to launch a Malaysian Earth-observation spacecraft was planned for late this year. But before those launches are given the all-clear, SpaceX will first have to study what caused the problem encountered during Tuesday's mission and fix it. Two small NASA experiments were bolted atop the upper stage during Tuesday's launch. The Autonomous Flight Safety System was an instrument designed to detect problems during rocket launches and automatically activiate a flight termination system, which would bring down the rocket before it endangers the public. An inexpensive transmitter linked with NASA's network of tracking and data relay satellites was also aboard the rocket to beam live telemetry back to the rocket's control room. Engineers had also planned to demonstrate the Falcon 1's satellite separation system by jettisoning a small 4.5-pound aluminum ring after arriving in orbit. SpaceX's second launch came a year after the Falcon 1 rocket suffered a major failure during its maiden flight. Investigators traced the cause of that accident to a corroded aluminum nut in the first stage propulsion system, which triggered a fuel leak that led to a premature shutdown of the Merlin engine about 30 seconds after liftoff. SpaceX engineers overhauled countdown procedures and added upgrades to the first stage Merlin engine to increase reliability, according to the company's Web site. Tuesday's demonstration flight was sponsored by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under its program to develop responsive space technologies such as low-cost small satellite launch vehicles. The booster's first stage was fitted with a parachute recovery system, allowing it to slowly drop into the Pacific Ocean a few hundred miles downrange from the Omelek launch pad. SpaceX positioned a ship to retrieve the spent rocket stage in hopes of refurbishing it for reuse on a future mission. Musk said there should be no problems recovering the spent stage because it performed well and was dropped in the designated area. "We'll be doing a thorough examination of that piece of hardware," Shotwell said. "It's not as easy to determine how well you did unless you can actually (recover) the hardware." Eleven more missions are currently manifested for SpaceX's Falcon rocket family, and the contracts are valued at nearly $400 million, Shotwell said. In addition to the Falcon 1 booster, SpaceX is developing a much larger rocket to carry heavier satellites into orbit. Company officials expect the Falcon 9 rocket to debut as early next year. The Falcon 1 can haul satellites up to about 1,270 pounds into low Earth orbit, while the Falcon 9 should be capable of delivering about 22,770 pounds to low Earth orbit and up to 10,000 pounds to geostationary transfer orbit, a popular destination for communications satellites, according to the SpaceX Web site. Also on the drawing boards is the Falcon 9 Heavy, which is expected to launch more than 60,000 pounds to low Earth orbit. That version could fly by 2010. SpaceX sells the Falcon 1 for as little as $6.7 million, while the Falcon 9 price ranges from about $27 million to $78 million, according to company officials. SpaceX is also planning to begin launching missions from Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., by 2009. Three Falcon 9 launches are already on the books as test flights for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. The program aims to partner with the private sector to create spacecraft to supply the international space station after the agency's space shuttle fleet is retired in 2010. SpaceX was awarded a contract worth $278 million from the program in August, and the company plans to use its Dragon space capsule for the three demonstration missions. Oklahoma-based Rocketplane Kistler also won a $207 million contract from NASA and is developing a reusable launcher and orbital spacecraft for another series of test flights by 2010. The remainder of SpaceX's launch backlog includes six commercial payloads and two launches for the U.S. military. Our play-by-play coverage of Tuesday's launch and an extensive transcript from Musk's post-flight call with reporters can be found here. And a collection of images from the launch is posted here. |


text:
Waterman Hemisphere Light Pink Lacquer & Chrome Fountain Pen
- Inspired by this season's bold colour-blocking style, a statement fountain pen with a stylish finish and slim silhouette
- Light pink barrel with darker pink cap, signature double-branched gold coated clip and trim
- Gold coated stainless-steel nib engraved with Waterman's iconic looped 'W' for smooth writing
- French made, benefitting from Waterman's in house craftmanship and over 130 years of experience
- Presented in a premium Waterman gift box, the perfect gift to yourself or others
Shipping is automatically calculated prior to submitting your payment information. Simply add items to your cart and proceed to the Checkout page where you will be offered Shipping Method choices and their prices.
After placing your order, you may click the "My Account" link at the top right hand side of our site to track the status of your order. You will receive a shipment confirmation when your order has shipped and tracking information within 24-48 hours of shipment.
How do I return an item?
We have a hassle-free return policy at Pen Place which allows you to return any non-personalized item, for any reason, within thirty (30) days of the date of receipt. The delivery date will be determined by your UPS or USPS tracking number. If you wish to return an item within the thirty (30) days allowed, please ensure the item is in new condition and has all original packaging that was shipped with your order.
If you would like to return an item, please email us at firstname.lastname@example.com, or call us at 816-474-7500 and state why you would like to return the item. Pen Place will respond to your request to approve or disapprove return of the item. If the return is due to the wrong product or damaged product being shipped, Pen Place will send a postage paid return label. Otherwise, the customer will be responsible for return postage. Refunds will be processed when the item is received at Pen Place, and will be applied to the credit card or PayPal account used at checkout. Please allow 3 days for the credit to appear on the account. Returns will be shipped back to:
Exceptions to the Return Policy
Shipping charges will not be refunded unless we made an error in the order or the item was damaged. Items that have been engraved cannot be returned unless their was a misspelling of the name. If an item is returned, but is not in new condition, the item will be returned to you and you will not receive a refund. No restocking fee for items unless they are marked Special Order. Items marked Special Order will be charged a restocking fee of 30% of the MSRP.


text:
Scotland Explorer
Experience the magic and mystery of the breathtaking land called Scotland as you discover its sweeping beauty from the rocky hills of Edinburgh to the Highland resort of Pitlochry, through the awe-inspiring lake country to Glasgow. Get acquainted with its rugged castles, character, and hearty cuisine to see why Scotland is the home of so many originals on your escorted tour of Scotland. Revel in the free time Cosmos Lite affords you, with a selection of à la carte optional excursions that are perfect for you. With your Tour Director and CosmosGO mobile app, you're never at a loss (or lost) when exploring each destination. You'll begin in the vibrant Scottish capital of Edinburgh. Take in an optional Scottish evening of bagpipers, Highland dancers, and the Ceremony of the Haggis. Explore Edinburgh's Old Town, New Town, and consider a visit to the castle to gaze upon the Crown Jewels. On to the Highland resort of Pitlochry, via the "home of golf" at St. Andrews. In Pitlochry, take in the ancient sites with mystical stone circles and standing stones. Called "the fairest portion of the northern kingdom" by Sir Walter Scott, Perthshire is a serene world of lush forests and rushing rivers. From here, your Scotland vacation ventures to the "Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond," as the song goes. Next, stop in Glasgow and decide among its more than 20 museums and galleries, great shopping along the "Style Mile," and hearty food and drink as only Scotland can serve, or spend time on an optional tour of Outlander themed castles and sites!
Buffet breakfast daily
Touring by private, first-class, air-conditioned motorcoach with Wi-Fi.


text:
On Thursday, the state-run Syrian Telecommunications Establishment flipped the virtual switch and killed Internet access within the nation. Shortly after that act, Anonymous flipped their collective lids and started targeting the Internet properties of the Syrian government and pro-government supporters in retaliation. In addition, the loosely associative group, under the flag of OpSyria, started spreading dial-up numbers to enable spotty communications.
When the public first learned of the Internet blackout in Syria, the Syrian Minister of Information was quick to blame terrorists and made a halfhearted attempt to assure the world that the government had nothing to do with the outage.
"It is not true that the state cut the Internet. The terrorists targeted the Internet lines, resulting in some regions being cut off," the Minister stated.
However, network analytics firms and Internet monitors tell a different story. Renesys was the first firm to go on record and confirm a complete shutdown of the Web within Syria, noting that all 84 of Syria's IP address blocks has become unreachable, "effectively removing the country from the Internet."
However, after the Syrian Minister blamed terrorists, another company with a strong eye on the Internet called their bluff.
Cloud Flare, in a blog post Thursday afternoon, simply said that the Minister's claims were unlikely.
"The Syrian Minister of Information is being reported as saying that the government did not disable the Internet, but instead the outage was caused by a cable being cut… From our investigation, that appears unlikely to be the case. To begin, all connectivity to Syria, not just some regions, has been cut," the blog explains.
"Syria has 4 physical cables that connect it to the rest of the Internet. Three are undersea cables that land in the city of Tartous, Syria. The fourth is an over-land cable through Turkey. In order for a whole-country outage, all four of these cables would have had to been cut simultaneously. That is unlikely to have happened."
In fact, a video shows the routes to the Internet within Syria dropping off at a rather alarming rate. The only way that such a coordinated outage happens is if the state-run Syrian Telecommunications Establishment severs ties with PCCW, Turk Telekom, Telecom Italia, and TATA.
Anonymous Responds
Once the outage was confirmed, it wasn't long before Anonymous, under OpSyria, entered the conflict.
"The nation of Syria has gone dark. And Anonymous knows all to well what happens in the dark places," a statement from OpSyria stated.
"Fortunately, Anonymous has been working with Syrian activists for well over a year in anticipation of this moment. We produced and disseminated the Syrian Care Package, and there are emergency independent media centers already set up in every city of Syria. Activists and independent journalists in Syria will be able to utilize these media centers to get news and media out of Syria, and Anonymous will assist in propagating that media to the world…"
At 9:00 p.m. EST on Thursday, Anonymous started removing all of the Syrian Government's Internet properties that remained online after the nation's Web access was severed. The coordinated effort targeted government domains, as well as domains ran by pro-government sympathizers.
It wasn't long before domains were either taken down via DDoS, or defaced and rendered useless.
Belgium Embassy (http://www.syrianembassy.be/)
Industrial Bank (http://industrialbank.gov.sy/)
Embassy in China (http://syria.org.cn)
Embassy in Saudi Arabia (http://www.syrianembassy-sa.org)
Embassy in Australia (http://syrianembassy.org.au)
Al-Baath News (Pro-government) (http://www.albaath.news.sy)
Ministry of Communications & Technology (http://www.moct.gov.sy)
Syrian Railways (http://www.syrecon.org)
The Baath Arab Socialist Party (http://www.baath-party.org/eng/news.asp)
Syrian Parliament (http://parliament.gov.sy)
Syrian TV (Pro-government) (http://www.rtv.gov.sy)
Al-Thawra News Paper (Pro-Government) (http://thawra.alwehda.gov.sy)
Syrian Times (Pro-Government) (http://syriatimes.tishreen.info)
Teshreen Newspaper (Pro-Government) (http://www.tishreen.info)
Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (http://www.mofa.gov.sy)
The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was breached, and has sense been taken offline. Anonymous managed to download 1GB of email, consisting of recent communications and internal memos, and posted it to the Web.
"Within the stash you will find details about cargo flights from Russia, each containing 30 tons of fresh Syrian Cash, as ProPublica has already reported today. Furthermore you will find lulzy documents such as scanned passports from Syrian ministers [PDF] and details about arms transportation from Ukraine, as shown in our teaser here and here (flyover permission for Iran) [PDF]," the OpSyria post explained.
It's worth adding that while Anonymous has started selecting targets at will, pro-Syrian hackers have targeted opposition websites, as well as Reuters and Al Jazeera. In the attacks on the media, the ill-gotten access was used to publish fake news, as a type of propaganda campaign. Since this summer, pro-government supporters have also targeted the opposition with Malware, such as the Trojan attack that spread via Skype.
Anonymous' tasks are being made easier by an Assad government mandate that pushed hosting of some official websites to datacenters outside of Syria. This makes them easy to find, and allows Anonymous their chance to prevent Syria from promoting their message while they censor their own people.
Unfortunately, it would appear some firms have allowed the Assad regime a safe home on the Web here in the US, which is against the law. The New York Times covered that story here.
As of 01:00 a.m. EST, the conflict and bloodshed on the streets in Syria has added a new front, the Internet, and Anonymous doesn't appear to be running out of steam. However, the pro-Assad presence and counteroffensive online seems to have dried up – likely due to the blackout and the fact that most of their communications outside of the country are down.


text:
I just updated a plugin that needed to be updated. The issue is they added support for OAuth, the problem this plugin and another are using the same OAuth classes. Is there a easy way to fix this? I've never messed with OAuth or classes in PHP, I'm not a programmer.
PHP Fatal error: Cannot redeclare class OAuthSignatureMethod_HMAC_SHA1


text:
The Case of the Jumping Gyro
July 14, 2011
In 1979, I was designing lighting control and navigation systems for remote-controlled underwater vehicles (RCVs). I watched with great interest the development of other parts of the system. The RCV had a heading servo referenced to a gas-rate gyro, which had a trimmable dc offset. Every once in a while, the heading would take a jump of 10 to 15 degrees. The crusty old engineer in the lab was assigned to track it down.
He connected the gyro output to one channel of a multi-channel analog strip chart recorder, a second channel on the reference trimmer output, and the third channel to the local power supply. He put the gyro in a plastic bag in a bath of ice water, which warmed up very slowly. He sat there with his stack of magazines, a thermos of coffee, and pack of cigarettes, while he watched the strip chart recorder all morning. Sure enough, every once in a while, the output jumped. When the trimmer output jumped, the gyro output jumped with it. The power supply was stable.
The fault was a wire-wound potentiometer. As temperature changed, the pot mechanically skipped from one wire to another, causing an offset. He replaced the pot with a resistive divider. The gyro stabilized, and the problem was solved.
Fast forward to 1991 at a customer's lab. We saw the same jumping calibration problem with a blood pressure meter (the type with an arm cuff). It was being used in a dialysis machine. I knew what the problem was, but I was wrong. It turns out the voltmeter being used had a fault where on very slowly moving voltages it would count 149, 149, 151, 150, 152...
I called a co-worker who had designed the software in that specific voltmeter years earlier. He confirmed the software fault in the voltmeter (it was not a noise issue). The customer replaced his voltmeter, the blood pressure meters passed, and all was well.
This entry was submitted by Dennis Seguine and edited by Rob Spiegel.
Dennis Seguine designed underwater systems, machinery monitors, and medical instruments for several decades. He is now an applications engineer with Cypress Semiconductor, trying to fit every possible analog and digital application into a PSoC micro controller.
Tell us your experience in solving a knotty engineering problem. Send examples to Rob Spiegel for Sherlock Ohms.
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like